TESS VALMORE


The September PPV proved to be larger than expected with 29 bouts including four title fights. Three titles were retained and one changed hands

Rhoda won her first title defense in a tough fight against Katrina Law with a seven round KO.

Lima retained the lightweight title in an inter-stable bout solely designed to give Lima bragging rights with her fifth title defense. The problem here is not how many fights you win, but who you beat. This bout didn’t give Lima a lot of credit.

Chloe Bennet took the bantam crown from VanCamp with a ninth round KO,  delivering Front Street their first title of the year and proving once again, Front Street’s method of scheduling fights works well.

Megan Fox continues to amaze me. She defeated Cheryl Cole for her third successful title defense, which is three more than I had expected.

It should be noted that two fighters took big steps toward the Hall Of Fame.  Amanda Righetti beat Gemma Atkinson in what I believe was her 99th fight. One more fight and she will be eligible for the Hall, no matter if she wins or loses. Hayden Panettiere’s win over Hale was in her 96th fight. Like Righetti, all she needs is fights. She will be in no matter how she does in the next four bouts

Kendall Jenner, who continues to impress, popped Taylor Swifts bubble. Swift is fine against second tier and old,  over the hill fighters, but her ability against up and coming and first tier fighters is questionable

Cassidy Freeman in her win over Michelle Ryan made a leap into title contention. She will be hard to ignore. Similarly, Brooklyn Decker’s win over Rohrbach should put her back in the top ten

Dobrev handed Glau her sixth straight loss salvaging what was a bad week for her, as her new movie “Flatliners” got a zero rating on Rotten Tomatoes

Winstead protected her top ten standing and Lopilato stayed in the hunt

The top lighter fighters like M.Kelly, Henstridge, Hudgens, Lovato won as expected.

Dizon beat Cotillard in a match I hope is never made again. Cotilliard should give up boxing.

We had an unexpected bout between Jolie and Mendes. Who thought dragging Jolie back into the ring was a good idea? A W pad for Mendes? Smackey and I went down to the bar

Shahi is starting to look old as she lost her fourth fight of the year. Two more losses and she should consider retiring rather travel the route to oblivion currently being wished on the GOAT (but hopefully no more)

In the flyweights, I expect Panettiere, Gomez, L. Collins and Henstridge to move up in the flyweight rankings and Hale and Shahi to drop

Similarly, Scodelario and Miller could move up in the bantam rankings while Wilde will probably be down

I thought Rhoda and Law plus Henstridge and Knightley showed good sportsmanship after their fights. That was in contrast to a number of unpleasant exhibitions post bout. Do managers really think that is attractive, or is it that they just can’t control their fighters?

Finally I have been ranting about how easy fights are to predict. There were only a couple of obvious blowouts on the card and a lot of good bouts, but I still got 19 our of 24 correct. Thats a 79% correct ratio. Much higher than it should be. Trust me, I am not that good at predicting.